Newbee winter question

[Lisak1]

.Is a little bacteria that may survive really worth it

Putting aside bacteria - what about your fish? I am of the opinion that running water is healthier for the fish. Just an opinion, though. I don't have any science to back it up.

 

[dspotten]

Nature adapts. We appreciate it!

This is what I needed to hear. I try to keep my pond as I keep my yard - as natural as possible.

I don't deadhead and cut back in the fall. The birds eat the seeds and I get surprise volunteers in the spring. I don't use chemicals. I have a yard full of wildlife. I hear people lamenting that they don't see fireflies anymore, but my yard is full of them.

I'm going to play it by ear. Even in winter I'm outside 4-5 times/day with the dog. We have a pond heater, so I'm going to turn that on and leave the pump running. DH is an engineer so I'm going to have him create a reverse float that will shut off just the pump if the water level drops too much.

We still have months before we get a freeze, but I'm a compulsive planner.

 

[carolinaguy]

The pond design will dictate what you choose, but the design done correctly will permit you to operate your pump and water flow year around. When you shut down a filter, the bacteria actually flip to anaerobic after the oxygen is depleted, typically in 45 minutes. If you want to test this phenomenon, turn your system off for an hour and start up up so that you can smell the outflow. It will smell like rotten eggs. The bacteria will eventually go dormant and create spores that will return when you start up,but the recommendation is to run the system year around. We valve our pond so that we can turn off the waterfalls and run the water back through bulwark fittings close to the surface. We also turn our bottom drains almost completely off to maintain a higher water temperature at lower levels. Koi settle to the bottom and some heat is retained as the ground serves as a heat sink. The physical chemistry of water also shows that the heaviest water is 4 degrees Celsius, so that water tends to sink, and lighter water molecules rise. So the bottom tends to stay warmer, and the vertical movement of heavier 4 degree water oxygenates the lower level. Additionally ice overs also retain heat and are valuable insulators so long as there is an air gap between the ice and water surface. But if the design doesn’t support this concept, you need to find an alternative solution.

We live in South Carolina so our winters do not approximate Michigan Maryland or Illinois. But the concept above can work there too if the design respects the frost level and there is a backup plan for a power outage. An old fashioned incandescent bulb can heat a closed space. A small heater can do the same. Then again a long term outage can still be a problem , but how often does that happen? Just keep in mind that the most oxygen depleted water is at the bottom away from the ponds natural gas exchange, the surface.

 

[dspotten]

Thanks, Carolinaguy.

Our design will allow us to bypass the falls and dump directly back into the pond. I hadn't thought of that.

Also, we have lived here for 8 years and I can count on one hand the times we've lost power. And the longest it has been off is an hour when a transformer blew.

 

[addy1]

I hear people lamenting that they don't see fireflies anymore, but my yard is full of them.

We have tons of them also. We were over run with black crickets when we moved here, now hardly ever see one. The birds, roads, frogs, etc eat them up. And NO mosquitoes. I have a ton of bird houses everywhere. No spraying except to kill poison ivy.

 

[craigbomb]

Was going to start a new thread on this, but then came across this one!

I, too, am already planning for the winter. I am in Seattle, WA, and our winters are typically very mild. We do get down into the 30's, and sometimes 20's with, wait for it, even some snow flurries!

I have a skimmer with my pumped housed in that, that then runs about 25 feet underground up to my waterfall. My pond is about 13'x12' or so, deepest parts being 42", mostly 30-36" with a variety of shelves.

I had planned on keeping it running, as I don't have a valve or a bottom drain, and knowing it doesn't get to freezing very often, or for very long sustained periods. We may hit a 2-3 week run where we may be consistently at or just above freezing, but that is typically the extent of it.

In this case, do you think I'd be safe to keep my system running throughout the winter, maybe put a smaller heater in there while monitoring temperatures?

One thing I am worried about would be power outages, but at worst, those have only lasted anywhere from a few minutes to a couple days (once in last 10+ years I've lived where I do today). Any risk here?

Planning ahead for first winter with our new pond (more pics, and video to come in different thread!), and my wife and I absolutely love this pond and our fish, and want to make sure it survives it's first winter along with our fish.

 

[Mmathis]

@craigbomb I just looked up your planting (USDA) zone and it looks like you are somewhere around zone 8. You should be fine for letting everything run through the winter. I’m in the Southern US, in zone 8a-b (it changes), and I run my bog and filter all year. Even with our occasional “cold snaps,” nothing stays “frozen” for more than a day or 2, and the pond has never frozen (in 6 years). We do have a power outage or 2 throughout the year, but again barely anything that lasts longer than 12-24 hours. Here, I am more concerned with power outages during the summer than I am for the winter — as far as the pond. My water temperature is already close to 90F, and if we lose power now, with our summer temps. in the triple digits........ And no, we don’t have a generator, but many pond people do.

 

[addy1]

We freeze sometimes, freeze hard. For me I turn all off it does not bother the pond.

If I lived in zone 8 I would leave it running without any concern. My other pond was zone 9, always left it running.

 

[poconojoe]

To the OP...I think we need more information about your setup to answer if you should leave your pump running.
Is it a submersible pump? What does it feed? A waterfall or other feature?
Everyone has an opinion and everybody's pond is different.
Here's my situation and what I've been doing for years:
I live in northeastern PA, so I get a considerable amount of ice formation.
I have a submerged pump feeding a pressure filter/UV combination which supplies my waterfall. This part is shut off for the winter. The reason I do this is I fear that the water from the falls could end up flowing over the frozen pond and escaping which may result in emptying the pond. The pump and filter are taken inside to prevent freeze damage.
I use an aerator with a large air stone all year.
I also use a deicer during winter to allow for gasses to escape.
I have a second smaller pump which is in a bucket covered with lava rocks which runs all year. This one just has a 3/4" PVC going straight up to just under the water surface. The water just shoots up like a small fountain. This "fountain" mostly keeps an opening in the water. Only during extreme long term cold spell does a dome form over the "fountain".
So, the answer is...it depends on your setup.

 

[craigbomb]

We freeze sometimes, freeze hard. For me I turn all off it does not bother the pond.

If I lived in zone 8 I would leave it running without any concern. My other pond was zone 9, always left it running.

This is great to hear! Thanks for your input, put some of my anxiety for the upcoming fall/winter to rest! Appreciate you taking the time to response!

 

[sissy]

poconojoe that is the way I did mine at first and still do it if it looks bad for a long time